Comparing Algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem

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The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is an NP-complete problem. Different approximation algorithms have their advantages and disadvantages.
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Contributed by: Frederick Wu (March 2011)
Additional contributions by: Daniel Lichtblau
Based on a program by: Sidong Zeng
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
Snapshot 1: with 30 points, FindShortestTour methods find a shorter result than the 3-Opt method
Snapshot 2: with 30 points, both 3-Opt and Mathematica's FindShortestTour methods find an optimal result
Snapshot 3: with 40 points, 3-Opt finds a shorter result than any of the FindShortestTour methods
Permanent Citation
"Comparing Algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ComparingAlgorithmsForTheTravelingSalesmanProblem/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: March 7 2011